How to Teach Tricks and Commands (Please add yours too!)

We've had a thread on the tricks our dogs know and I thought it would be nice if we posted how to teach specific tricks in this thread (each new trick in a new post) so it can act like an online list of dog tricks and how to do them

If you are interested please create a new post for each trick/command and try to be as descriptive as possible. Please do not copy and paste from other websites as that's not allowed. Here's an example:

Twist

Twist is when the dog turns in a tight circle - to teach this, hold a treat infront of the dogs nose so it follows the treat and move it so the dog turns in a tight cirlcle, say the word 'twist' and then treat when your dog completes a twist

Good thread! Zuki knows very few tricks that I have taught her so it will be good to teach her a few new things.

Ok I will start!

Crawl
From the down possition put a treat infront of the dogs nose on the floor just out of reach move it slowly so the dog has to move his paws forward to get to it, treat (or click treat if clicker training) you may want to put a hand over the dogs back to gently encourage him to stay down but generally if he is getting up your moving the treat to fast and need to slow down.
Gradually increase the distance he has to crawl before treating and add the word crawl.

hi
LEAVE + TAKE IT

place a treat in you palm(with your hand flat) when your dog goes to take it close your fist and say "leave", continue this until your dog stops trying to get it and maybe looks away then open your palm and say "take it",practice this until you can hold the treat in front of the nose of better still put the treat on the ground! when you close your fist if your dog trys to dig at your palm just move it away! alos you can practise this with a toy or your feed bowl

Hop!
This is a fun trick which I recently trained Betty to do. She's jumping up on her hind legs and I'm jumping at the same time.
First, you have to get your dog to stand on it's hind legs. You can shape the dog to do that with a target stick (or anything else the dog knows to touch with his nose) and the clicker. While the dog is standing, ask him touch the target stick two or three time when it's in front of the dogs's nose so that he knows what he will practise. Click right when he touches it (you know, timing is crucial).
Then start holding the target stick a bit above his head (so that he has to lift up his nose). Then hold it higher and higher until the dog has to lift his front legs off the ground in order to touch the stick.
When you get the actual behaviour of the dog standing on its hind legs, you can first name it and use it as a diffrent trick or go straight on.
To make the dog jump on its hind legs, you have to hold the target stick about 10 centimetres (4 inches) above the dog's nose while he's standing on his hind legs. Tell him to touch the stick. The dog may first wonder a bit how to actually do that but finally will jump up and touch the stick. You should click right when the dog jumps up, not when he touches the stick.
Practise that exercise until the dog gets confident and then add the cue "hop" (or whatever else you want) before he jumps up. Now click only when he jumps on your cue. To test his response to the cue, hold the target stick and wait. He's likely to hop up but don't click as you haven't told him to do so.

Just a word of warning Please do not try to teach large, heavy dogs, young puppies, or breeds known to be susceptible to joint/back/hip problems to walk, stand, or hop on their hind legs.

Jake loves learning especially as he gets loads of attention and fuss... we've taught him to roll over on command, did this by going through sit, down and then taking the ball from in front of his nose around his back across his shoulders. He loves his ball and followed it with his eyes so he had to roll over.

Eventually (after a few days of this exciting new game ) just saying roll over and waving my hand in a circle gave him the right idea! I guess you could use a treat too...

Must say though I wouldn't ask him to roll over on anything but carpet or grass!!!

Teaching tricks is great fun and keeps your dog interested in you. I will definitely check back on this thread to get ideas for new ones...

Wouldnt know where to start- my Smaty pants jack russell knows over 300 voice commands/tricks- Ill try to think of a few to post

Ask your dog for a specific paw. Missy learned this very quickly. She readily gives a paw so one day, I asked her for " Left Paw". As I asked her, I held my hand out near her left paw. She gave me her left paw straight away and she got loads of praise and a mixer biscuit . Using the same technique, I asked for " Right Paw" then " Two Paws" (hold both hands out). Over time and practise, not always with a treat, she now gives either paw or both on command. She gets it right every time too !

We taught Roxy the same way but with a treat we've also recently been teaching 'drop' by basically me waiting for her to drop a toy (usually when she see's i've got treats out. Then immediately I click and treat her, whilst saying the word 'drop'